GUEST VIEW: Talk of raising minimum wage is about politics, not people

Monday

Apr 14, 2014 at 8:32 PMApr 14, 2014 at 8:32 PM

The Democratic Party is set to get soundly defeated at the ballot box this November. A midterm election always favors the party opposite of the President. However, this effect will be compounded by the abject failure of Obamacare which was pushed for and supported by nearly all Democrats.

James Lower Member, Ionia County Republican Party

The Democratic Party is set to get soundly defeated at the ballot box this November. A midterm election always favors the party opposite of the President. However, this effect will be compounded by the abject failure of Obamacare which was pushed for and supported by nearly all Democrats.

Before the President unilaterally (and I would argue illegally) delayed the employer mandate to offer health insurance; many businesses began cutting back on the hours of minimum wage employees. This was done to make sure the employees worked below the minimum number of hours required to qualify for employer provided health insurance. So, instead of getting the free health insurance they were promised, these low income workers received a cut in pay.

Sadly, this is by far not the only failure of Obamacare. The President and the Democratic Party are well aware of these failures. That is why the President conveniently delayed these cut backs in hours until after the midterm election. He achieved this effect by delaying the requirement for employers to provide health insurance.

Even with the delay of some of the most painful unintended consequences of Obamacare, Democrats are at extreme risk of disenfranchising some of their more loyal voters. If this happens it would most assuredly cause them to lose control of the United States Senate. It may cost them the next several Presidential elections as well.

Rather than work across the aisle to fix a failed or failing policy, the Democratic Party would much rather simply change the subject. So, in order to address the problems they are having with a key constituency the Democratic Party has decided to start talking about minimum wage.They hope to make minimum wage the key issue of the 2014 election. In Michigan a group closely allied with the Democratic Party is circulating petitions to get a minimum wage increase on the ballot. The goal is to keep the same low income workers who were hurt by the unintended consequences of Obamacare in the corner of Democrats.

They also hope it will boost traditionally low midterm election turnout. Ironically and sadly the very proposal they hope to get these people to vote for will not help them, just as Obamacare has not helped them.It is a simple fact that if employers could not afford to provide health insurance to minimum wage employees they cannot afford to pay them ten dollars per hour. Instead of a raise, many minimum wage employees will in fact be laid off or face drastic cut backs in their hours.

The President and Democratic Party leaders know this. However, pushing this policy has never been about actually helping people. It is simply about clinging to power in the United States Senate for as long as possible.

If minimum wage workers buy into these empty promises again, then the Democrats may retain control of the Senate. But what will the people that kept them there get? They will get even less hours at work (if they are lucky enough to not lose their jobs all together). I sincerely hope voters (particularly of my generation) do not once again pull the lever for fool's gold at the ballot box.